gofree set up

[Chris Jones]

I think I have figured how to set up RPi with Kplex on my boat where I also have GoFree. 

The gofree configuration worked without any effort at all, and the TCP server that I also have running worked perfectly, sharing all the gofree data across the network as well as sharing some performance data that I am generating in parallel. I am using the gofree wifi to link everything together, which seems to work fine once connections have been established, but dhcp seems to take forever to get a device connected, however patience paid off.

I am now looking forward to logging all my data and fully commissioning my electronic polar (calc target boat speed and use bar graph to show boat heading relative to polar angle).

Only question I have is that some data does not seem to come through gofree (eg, heel angle) -- does anyone know if there is any configuration on gofree?

[Keith Young]

Sadly I don't have any navico stuff to answer your question but may I ask if you're using the "gofree" interface in kplex as opposed to connecting to the the MFD's IP address?  There's been very little feedback on that interface type. It's worked whenever I've managed to try it at boat shows but after being invited to test at Navico's labs in Romsey they stopped replying to my emails. Hence the "experimental" tag in the the documentation.

[Chris Jones]

My config just has gofree, device=wlan0, direction=in

I did have a plan B ready, as I was not expecting it to work with your "experimental" label, but it worked perfectly without an attention or difficulty :) - As I mentioned, it is the WiFi that seems to struggle a bit more. (for example, running a Fing scan takes about 10 mins instead of 10 seconds)

when I get back on the boat I am going to try and check if I have all the firmware up to date, but apart from that it seems hard to get info from B&G.

Did you ever try and link up with their higher levels of partnering and presumably more info on the systems?

I'll post an update when I have been out sailing with it all running.

Thx

C

[Keith Young]

My config just has gofree, device=wlan0, direction=in

Excellent: thanks for letting me know.  The "direction=in" isn't strictly necessary in this case because that's the only option (gofree  being outbound from the MFD only) but not an error to have it in there explicitly.

Failover between MFDs (for anyone who has two) and re-binding to a higher-priority MFD *should* work but hasn't been tested with real MFDs: If anyone has multiple MFDs with gofree and kplex, do please try some switching on and off and report back :-)

 

Did you ever try and link up with their higher levels of partnering and presumably more info on the systems?

Yes: I followed their advertised procedure and mailed "gof...@navico.com" briefly explaining the project and requesting information but I never received a reply which was of course disappointing.

On the upside incorporation of higher tiers may have been off-mission for kplex.  The goal is to minimise the runtime footprint and not require installation of additional libraries.  kplex does its own JSON parsing for gofree which isn't too bulky.  I suspect (anyone who knows please pitch in) that the higher tiers are websockets based which is a fair bit of additional code or (the approach any rational person would take) an external library dependency.

[Chris Jones]

I might have 2 MFD on the boat for a while as planning an "upgrade", so I'll monitor that and let you know. If you have any idea about what sequence of systems on/off and best way to monitor then please let me know. 

[Robbie Wilderspin]

This reply doesnt really help with gofree, which I dont have (having failed to get the freebie offered last year on purchase of a Navico MFD :( ). I do have a Simrad MFD however, an NSS8, and have found that port 10111 from the controller outputs NMEA for all the inputs I have connected to it (so far its just GPS derived stuff as I have no NMEA bus installed).

I have an ethernet switch installed between the radar head unit and its controller (to try and capture the output for OpenCPN) which also provides ip access to the NSS controller. The switch connects to the boats onboard router which provides wired/wireless access to any services connected through it, mainly internet and NMEA data - the NSS8 controller picks up a DHCP address from the router. The router can run an instance of kplex which handles a couple of USB/serial inputs carrying GPS and AIS inputs. Thus OCPN can be configured to get data from either kplex or the NSS (or both).

[Keith Young]

This reply doesnt really help with gofree, which I dont have (having failed to get the freebie offered last year on purchase of a Navico MFD :( ). I do have a Simrad MFD however, an NSS8, and have found that port 10111 from the controller outputs NMEA for all the inputs I have connected to it (so far its just GPS derived stuff as I have no NMEA bus installed).

 I could be wrong about this but I think we just have a confusion of branding :-). "GoFree" seems to be navico's brand concept or whatever for getting your boat data over wireless and the "GoFree wifi-1" wireless router thing is an integral part of the marketing plan but (as far as I can see) utterly unnecessary as everything is done by the MFD.  If you do some network snooping you'll see the MFD kick out multicast service announcements to 239.2.1.1 port 2052 telling "GoFree" apps how to find the services it offers (including the nmea data on port 10110).  Your access point will bridge that as well as the wifi-1 does.  So *I think* you do actually have "gofree" and all those nice gofree apps should work just fine with your access point.   And of course kplex's gofree interface saves typing in the IP address of the MFD and *should* (only tested on simulated data so far) allow failover between multiple MFDs (if you had more than one, which I don't believe you do :-)

[Chris Jones]

.. just to apologise for creating confusion - Keith, I think you are exactly correct and I didnt properly distinguish between the hype and the product - for clarity, I am using and was refering to the gofree wifi-1 (which I have had to replace under warrentee and I am not convinced that it is working very well)

[Keith Young]

Chris

.. just to apologise for creating confusion - Keith, I think you are exactly correct and I didnt properly distinguish between the hype and the product - for clarity, I am using and was refering to the gofree wifi-1 (which I have had to replace under warrentee and I am not convinced that it is working very well)

 My last reply was actually to Robbie: i.e. I think (happy to be corrected :-) that he *does* have what I'd call "gofree dara" from the MFD even without navico's wifi-1.  If you've got both products you've definitely got it :-).

After you question about higher tier gofree data last week a mailed navico again to re-request information.  Again, no reply.  

[Chris Jones]

Update -

I now have my set up working reliably - I have linked RPi to gofree wifi-1 with ethernet cable.

• It works reliably (at least a whole weekend of frantic racing in 25 kts and 6 races around the Solent)
• I mashed a B&G wifi cable to put RJ45 onto one end (cable details available)

My RPi bradcasts on wifi reliably around the boat and we are using a range of apps

• sailracer is not consistant between platforms, and doesnt seem to pick up all date that is available
• nmea remote works really well
• iTacTic works well, but doesnt see to use the wind data

Next steps - 

• write code to work on the log files, going to look at using B&G decman format so that existing analysis software can be used.
  
• build another RPi that will pick up boat data and display on dedicated led displays the target up and down wind data from our polars.